Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen -- review and giveaway

Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor

Published:  2003 by Anchor Canada

Source:  Purchased

    My favorite book of 2012.  Yes, it's early to make that call, but I just loved loved loved this book.

    Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen is a novel with three related narratives:  that of Madame Proust of the title - Jeanne, mother of Marcel; of Marie Prevost, translator of Madame Proust's (fictionalized) diaries; and Sarah Bensimon, a Jewish girl who escaped Nazi-occupied Paris to a safe haven in Toronto.  Aside from Jeanne and Marie's obvious connection, it is difficult at first to see how the women's stories relate to one another, but they do tie together not only with the stories, but with the themes of memory, the French language (and its use with and against English -- especially in Montreal where part of Marie's story takes place), Jewish identity, and maternal love and expectations. 

   Marie in fact refers to Marcel Proust as "a comrade in pursuit of memory" and begins her translation of Madame Proust's diaries as a result of her affection for In Search of Lost Time.  In the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, her work on the diaries is intertwined with memories of her childhood in Paris, her first encounters with Jewish people, and of memories of Max Segal, a man who could not return the love she felt for him.  Her thoughts on discovering a fellow student in her Parisian school I found especially interesting and vivid:

... in these Parisian days, I know few Jews personally, and David's blond hair and happy manner are utterly unlike the other Jews I do know, the ones in the pictures they show us at school.  They are emaciated, living skeletons in striped pyjamas, indistinguishable one from the other.

and on learning about those "skeletons" in school:

These suffering skeletons in their striped pyjamas seem to me as noble and as distant as the bleeding Christ and weeping Virgin whose image hangs on the wall of the small classroom where we dully receive instruction on our catechism every Wednesday afternoon.

Such a lovely (yet at the same time haunting) description of Holocaust victims that I never have seen.

  Sarah Bensimon's story is not as directly tied to the other two, but it is no less interesting.  Living in Toronto with a Jewish foster family, she is brought up as "normally" as possible given her circumstances, though as a young woman and then as a wife and mother she seems to become a timid and insecure person who is not at all sure of her place in the world.  To comply with her more observant husband's religious traditions, but to keep the culinary traditions of her homeland, she turns her attention to cooking and finding a way to combine the two.  It is hard to say if this helps her at all or if it is only to please the others in her life, but to me it seems that this is the one of the few things she truly enjoys.

  And of course, being set partially in Canada, winter plays a part in the story and I just loved some of the descriptions of the season, especially this declaration Max makes to Marie as they leave a party in the dark of night during a snowfall:

"Snow, it's like falling in love.  Makes you see the whole world differently."

 I loved this sentence especially since as I was reading it six inches of snow was falling on us in Chicagoland and as I looked out the window I could see everything look prettier and calmer. 

  Kate Taylor touches on heavy topics in this novel, but it is by no means a heavy read.  Each narrative was well-told and woven into one another seamlessly; and as evidenced by the few quotes I've cited above, her use of words to paint a picture is perfect.

   I highly highly recommend this novel, but it is a bit tricky to find.  I picked it up on a visit to Toronto last week, and the only online source of it that I could find is Canada's bookstore chain Indigo.  But I really really want you to read this book, so for one lucky commenter (internationally!) I would like to order the book on their behalf.  Leave an e-mail address with your comment and on Sunday, January 29 I will randomly select a winner.





  

   

Half Blood Blues

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

Published:  2011 by Serpent's Tail

Source:  Purchased at an independent bookstore

 Paris, 1940.  Paris has fallen to the Nazis.  Anyone who can leave the city does.  A group of jazz musicians flee back to the U.S., knowing that they have left one of their own, trumpeter Hieronymous Falk - German and black - to an unknown fate after his arrest in a cafe.

  In 1992, Sid Griffiths, the only witness to Falk's arrest, is preparing to head to Berlin with another bandmate, Chip Jones to attend the premiere of a documentary of Falk's brief and brilliant life.  Having long abandoned his jazz career, Griffiths is reluctant to go, but Chip convinces him.  And once Sid has committed to the trip, Chip reveals an ulterior motive -- Falk is alive and living in Poland.  This causes Sid's memories to come flooding back and to come to terms with what really happened all those years ago.  And so the story moves between the two periods.

   In pre-war Berlin and wartime Paris, we see Sid, Chip, Hiero and their other bandmates working hard to "make it" as jazz musicians.  While in Berlin, they meet Delilah, an intriguing, mysterious woman who pulls Sid in all directions and creates in him a jealousy of Hiero, his much younger and more talented colleague.  That said, Sid is just as protective over "the kid" as anyone else, but Sid's ultimate goal is to make that one record that will shoot them all to stardom.

  In 1992 Berlin, Chip and Sid attend the film screening,  but after Chip makes an astonishing revelation in the documentary about Hiero's disappearance, Sid storms out of the theater and is ready to head back to Baltimore, not wanting anything more to do with his so-called friend.  However, in a comedy of errors that Chip may or may not have staged, Sid once again reluctantly accompanies him, this time to Poland to seek out Hiero, and to right the wrong he committed back in Paris.

  This novel interested me on a few levels.  As I'm drawn to WWII era novels anyway, I found this one - giving the perspective of black Americans in Europe - to be rather original (at least to me).  And the language used definitely created "the scene" for me; I could hear the way the characters spoke simply by the way Esi Edugyan wrote their dialogue.

  The story?  Well, I guess it's sad -- having to live with such a burden for so long can't be good for anyone -- but the parts where Sid and Chip are travelling are pretty funny.  It's also heartwarming, but I can't explain why or that will spoil it for you.

  This novel won the 2011 Giller Prize, Canada's highest literary honor.  I haven't read any of the other books shortlisted (yet -- a few are on Mount TBR), but I love the fact that a Canadian writer can still be considered as such when writing a novel with hardly any mention of Canada (Delilah is from Montreal, and that is the only Canadian reference I could find in the book).  (Just waving my patriotic flag).

  Highly recommended.

 
 

 

Far to Go by Alison Pick

Far to Go by Alison Pick

Published:  2010 by House of Anansi Press/Harper Collins Canada

Source:  Purchased

  This novel begins with a prophetic sentence:  "I wish this were a happy story."  Given that much of the narrative is set in Czechoslovakia at the time of Nazi occupation just before the beginning of World War II, one can immediately assume what type of unhappy story this will be; but it is more than that.

  The novel interweaves the narrative mentioned above - the story of Pavel and Anneliese Bauer, a prosperous Jewish couple who waver on sending their young son, Pepik, on a Kindertransport, and Pepik's nanny, Marta - with that of an unnamed narrator.  This narrator is a professor of Holocaust studies at a university in Canada and her area of interest is the children who were evacuated from Eastern Europe to England in the Kindertransports; she is obviously a lonely person and through her story we start to see the connection between this and her area of specialty.  She has a particular interest in the Bauer family, and she has kept a detailed file of their archived correspondence. 

 

  Marta is the focus of the historical narrative, and she is an interesting character.  Working for the Bauers after fleeing an apparently abusive home life, she finds comfort with them, and even though she questions the logic of her loyalty once persecution of the Jews begins, she realizes that the Bauers are the closest thing to a family she has known.  Pepik adores her - as she does him - and Pavel and Anneliese treat her as more than just a servant. 

  As the first sentence indicates, this novel is not a happy story.  That said, Alison Pick writes it so well that it is a pleasure to read - not only for the language she uses, and the interweaving narratives with copies of some letters from the archive; but for the mystery she creates, so even though you have an idea of the outcome, there are lingering questions throughout the novel that keep you reading. 

Highly recommended.

 

  

Practical Jean by Trevor Cole

Practical Jean by Trevor Cole

Published:  2010 by McClelland & Stewart

Source:  Purchased

  Jean Horemarsh is the kind of woman you wouldn't normally notice.  She lives a quiet life in Kotemee, the town in which she was born and raised; with her husband Milt and a group of close female friends, many of whom she has known virtually her entire life.

  After spending three months caring for her mother in the last stages of cancer, though, Jean has an epiphany: 

Death didn't have to be slow and agonizing and bleak.  Suffering was not a given.  A person could have a last poem.  And it wasn't something that had to come by chance.  That was the revelation.  It could be guaranteed. 

With that, Jean takes on a project that she hopes will ensure her friends will not endure the same painful end as her mother.  Describing the plot any further I think would spoil the pleasures of this novel for a reader, but I think this quote from the prologue should give an indication of where this story will take you:

And here in Kotemee, all anyone can now say is, "Thank God I was never a good friend of Jean Vale Horemarsh."

  Jean's intentions are certainly admirable, but they are unorthodox, and I think for that reason this book might not be everyone's cup of tea.  Practical Jean is a dark novel, yet humorous; and it made me think about death in a different way. 

Recommended.

Canadian Book Challenge 5 -- I'm In!

 
  Ok, folks, I'm doing my patriotic duty and signing up for The Canadian Book Challenge 5, hosted at The Book Mine Set.  Don't you love this awesome logo?

  So I fell down on the job and did not complete the 4th challenge, but as I was a newbie to blogging and to challenges last year I did not have a plan.  This year, I have compiled more than half of my reading list so far, just from the books patiently waiting on my shelf or on my nook:

1. The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
2. The Free World by David Bezmozgis
3. The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre
4. Beyond the Blue by Andrea McPherson
5. The Factory Voice by Jeanette Lynes
6. Doing Dangerously Well by Carole Enahoro
7. King John of Canada by Scott Gardiner
8. The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
9. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
10. The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy

  In addition I hope to pick up:

1.  Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
2. Practical Jean by Trevor Cole
3. Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor

  I also heard a rumour that Rohinton Mistry will be coming out with a new book soon and if that is true I will be purchasing that and reading it immediately.

  Any other Canadian books (fiction or non-fiction) that I should add to my list?

Of Hockey and Hijab

Of Hockey and Hijab:  Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman by Sheema Khan

Published:  2009 by Coach House Printing

Source:  Purchased

  This book is a collection of essays that initially appeared in The Globe and Mail as a series of monthly columns that Ms Khan wrote for the newspaper as a means to bridge the gap of understanding between Canadians as a whole and the Islamic community.  Written between 2002 and 2009, one would think that some of the material would be dated now, in 2011, but I found them quite timely.

  In an essay about reform in the Muslim world, she writes:

The wretched conditions faced by Muslims will not cease until there is a fundamental change from within. 

 and

Muslims will not solve homegrown problems of corruption, illiteracy, and sectarianism by constantly blaming the West.

  Declarations that now, given recent events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya seem almost prescient. 

  Included are also some personal essays that I found wonderfully poignant.  One tells about taking her son to a Montreal Canadiens' game and the memories it evoked of her childhood love of the team and of the game; this wasespecially enjoyable for me -- I was a long-suffering Winnipeg Jets' fan before they moved to Phoenix and though I hated the Canadiens I think I would have enjoyed attending a game with Ms Khan.  There is also a lovely tribute to a family neighbor, a Jewish woman, and the sadness that came at her death a few days before Khan's wedding:

And I wanted her to be part of the celebration the following day.  She was just like family.



  Overall I found this essay collection enlightening and look forward to reading more from Ms. Khan.  I know so little about Muslims and of their faith and books like this provide a personal side that is sadly lacking in news coverage.

  Highly recommended

 

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

Published:  2007 by McLelland & Stewart

Source:  Purchased (the Canadian edition, eh?)

  I'm a Canadian girl, and my one complaint about Canadian literature is that most of it is frankly quite depressing and bleak.  Granted, I enjoy reading depressing and bleak, but I wish there were more books available that were well written and that provided a laugh or two (or even a few smiles).  The Best Laid Plans is a great start.

  Daniel Addison has been a political aide in the Liberal Party but after a personal shock, he decides to leave Ottawa and head into academia at a university just outside of the capital.  Canada is just about ready for an election, so the Party asks him to find a Liberal candidate in the university's riding.  Said candidate would be running in an overwhelmingly Tory riding against the incumbent Member of Parliament Tory Finance Minister Eric Cameron; who is extremely popular around the country.

   Daniel finds his sacrificial lamb --  his landlord, Angus McLintock, who is also an engineering professor at the university -- who after some negotiation agrees to have his name on the ballot with the understanding that he has no chance of winning.  But of course, things happen..... 

   I wasn't sure if non-Canadians would appreciate/understand the political discourse in the novel, but after reading it I think that its description of politics is pretty universal.  And that is only one part of the story; there is romance, adventure (trust me, it's there!) and a very quirky cast of characters that make it all work.   And it's funny -- again I don't know if you need to be Canadian to get some the jokes but I've been out of the country for 11 years and I still found myself laughing out loud.

  It's only January, but The Best Laid Plans is already on my favorite reads of 2011 list.  Highly recommended.

  And it counts toward my progress in The Canadian Book Challenge 4 !

Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott

  Clara Purdy's life was changed by a car accident.  She wasn't seriously injured, but she took on the responsibility of taking care of the family whose car she hit while making a left turn.  The Gage family -- on their way to Fort McMurray for the father to seek work -- have little more than what is in their car, and an examination at the hospital after the accident reveals that Lorraine Gage, mother of three children, has cancer.

  Good to a Fault is a novel about doing the right thing.  Clara, a single woman who mainly keeps to herself, takes in Lorraine's three children -- Darlene (about eight or nine), Trevor (five) and Pearce (about 10 months at the time of the accident) -- and her lazy mother-in-law while Lorraine is hospitalized for her treatments and while Lorraine's husband has vanished with her late mother's car.    With the help of her saintly neighbor, Mrs. Zenko, her church priest, some extended family members, and Lorraine's brother Darwin, she somehow provides a household for the children to feel comfortable in and to feel like there is more to life than being alone.  It is an enjoyable story, one that made me wonder how far I would go to help out a stranger.


  This is the third book I have completed for the Canadian Book Challenge 4
  

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

I don't know how any of us in the twenty-first century can begin to comprehend what it was like to have been forced into slavery.  Sure, we complain about being overworked and underpaid, but for the most part we are able to move wherever and whenever we choose.  We are free. 

Aminata Diallo's story, as told in Lawrence Hill's fantastic novel The Book of Negroes (known in the United States as Someone Knows My Name) is one that is sad, shocking, and yet inspiring at the same time.  Kidnapped from her village in Africa as a young girl, Aminata endures the long walk to the ship that will take her across the ocean, that terrible voyage to America, and the hard, unimaginable life as a slave; all the while remembering where she came from and longing to return. 

Aminata's story travels a full circle - physically, from Africa, to South Carolina, to New York, to Nova Scotia, to London and back to Africa; and emotionally in a similar way.  She encounters many people in her life -- good and bad, black and white -- that help her keep her on the path to what becomes her ultimate goal:  becoming and remaining a free woman.

Lawrence Hill has written a wonderful novel and I am impressed with his ability to create such a wonderful female character.  It is at times not easy to read, but I am glad that I did. 

This is my second book completed for the Canadian Book Challenge 4.

Happy Birthday to Me!

  So I just returned from a quick visit up to my hometown of Winnipeg to visit with family and friends and to celebrate my xxth birthday with my niece Ryane who turned four on the same day.  I also had the chance to sneak out on my own and visit the bookstore, to pick up some birthday presents for myself:

  I found that I needed to stock up on some Canadian books for the Canadian Book Challenge, and since I'm ashamed to admit I have not read any Margaret Laurence novels, I picked up two of her best known, along with a novel by another great Canadian author, Gabrielle Roy (I think I may have been assigned part of the French version of The Road Past Altamont in university).  The Bishop's Man won last year's Giller Prize, and was conveniently just released in paperback, and Good to a Fault was one of this year's Canada Reads selections.  King John of Canada seemed to have a funny premise and was on the clearance table, so I thought I'd give it a go.

  

  And yes, I know that The Slap is not a Canadian book, but it has been on my to-read list for some time and honestly I haven't seen it anywhere in the stores here so I picked it up.  It is on the long-list for this year's Man Booker Prize, and I am attempting to read at least some of them before the winner is announced.

Unlikely Soldiers by Jonathan F. Vance -- Canadian Book Challenge

 
  Unlikely Soldiers:  How Two Canadians Fought The Secret War Against Nazi Occupation sounded like a heroic story of two Canadians doing their part to save Europe and the Western world from the evils of Adolf Hitler.  While the heroism is certainly not in doubt, the entire story of the organization in which they became involved was nothing but a comedy of errors that resulted in tragic consequences.

  Frank Pickersgill and Ken Macalister were two intelligent young men from different parts of Canada (Pickersgill from Winnipeg and Macalister from Guelph) who, after studying at the University of Toronto, headed to further their educations in Europe in the late 1930s.  Though Macalister initially went to England as a Rhodes scholar, he was permitted to complete his studies in France where he fell in love both with the country and with a young woman; Pickersgill was also in France, improving his language skills.  Both men became comfortable in France and loved the country and its people.

  When World War II began and France was occupied by the Nazis,  both men were both encouraged to return to Canada and to safety, however they felt such a loyalty to their adopted country that they chose to stay and fight for France's liberation.  They went to England and enlisted in the Canadian army, but because of their language skills and familiarity with France, they were transferred to a special division of the British military that was devoted to creating resistance networks in France. 
 
  After extensive training, Pickersgill and Macalister were flown into France, but because of the blunders of the intelligence network in place they were compromised almost from the beginning.  At this point - if this book were a novel - I would have given up, but as these were two real people who were only attempting to do their part to save France, I felt I needed to see their story to its conclusion.

  After describing the men's early years in Canada and then in France, the book becomes more about the complicated (and incompetent) network of resistance cells that is rather fascinating for those of us who are interested in World War II.    Alas, it wasn't the personal and human story I was hoping it to be. 

  This is my first book completed for The Canadian Book Challenge 4.

August's Reading List

  It's hard to believe that it's already August.  July seemed to fly past in a whirlwind (my work was crazy busy) and though I did complete everything on July's reading list (well I'm still slogging through Ulysses) and a few other books, I felt like I didn't get as much reading done as I would have liked. 

  But it's a new month, and here is what is on this month's reading list:
         For reading groups:        The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
                                               The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
                                               In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

         For the little reader's readalong:  The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (I'm also counting this one towards the Canadian Book Challenge 4)

   Mid-month I'm heading up to visit my family in Winnipeg and celebrate my birthday with Michael Buble (well, I'll be at his concert anyway) and since it's a 14-hour drive each way I suspect I will pick up a couple of audiobooks to keep me and the hubster entertained on the journey.   He is not a reader, but he says he will be interested in listening to books, so I have to search out some that we can both enjoy.